Role Purpose

The General Manager (GM) leads the hotel’s vision, culture, and performance, ensuring an exceptional, personalized guest experience aligned with AAA Four Diamond standards while delivering strong financial results and sustaining long-term asset value. 

 

This role requires strategic leadership, operational expertise, emotional intelligence, and a deep commitment to people development and service excellence. The GM has full responsibility for all hotel and retail operations across this 340-room property, including Front Office, Revenue/Reservations, Rooms and Event Sales, Housekeeping, Safety & Loss Prevention, Food & Beverage, Blush Salon & Spa, Starbucks, RIO, and the Kalamazoo Athletic Club.

 

Key Accountabilities

1. Ownership Stewardship & Strategic Alignment

• Serve as the primary steward of ownership intent, balancing near-term performance with long-term asset value while providing transparent, insightful reporting on performance trends, risks, and opportunities.

• Translate ownership vision, values, and financial objectives into clear operating priorities and cultural behaviors.

• Actively participate in long-range planning, capital prioritization, and ROI-driven decision-making.

 

2. Guest Experience & Brand Excellence

• Lead the guest experience end-to-end, delivering excellence from arrival through departure.

• Ensure consistent delivery of Four Diamond service standards, brand promises, and experiential differentiation.

• Personally engage with guests, VIPs, meeting planners, and key accounts to build loyalty and advocacy.

• Champion service recovery excellence, empowering leaders and frontline teams to resolve issues decisively and graciously.

• Lead quality assurance programs including brand audits, AAA/Forbes readiness, mystery shops, and guest sentiment analysis.

 

3. Financial Performance & Asset Stewardship

• Maintain full P&L accountability across all revenue streams and cost centers.

• Drive top-line growth through disciplined pricing and strategic market mix while balancing rate integrity with competitiveness to optimize RevPAR, Total RevPAR, GOP, and cash flow.

• Establish and manage annual Operating Budgets, Rolling Forecasts, and multi-year Financial Plans.

• Partner in capital planning/requests, preventive maintenance strategies, and lifecycle investment to protect asset condition and guest experience.

 

4. Culture, Leadership & Talent Development

• Serve as the hotel’s cultural leader by building, inspiring, and retaining an inclusive and high-performing leadership team.

• Empower leaders through coaching, feedback, and accountability, building an environment of trust that supports high performance.

• Oversee succession planning, leadership development, and internal mobility pipelines.

• Champion recognition, celebration, and storytelling that reinforces culture and ownership values.

 

5. Operational Excellence

• Ensure seamless coordination across Rooms, Food & Beverage, Sales & Marketing, Events, and Partner Divisions.

• Implement disciplined operating rhythms, SOPs, and KPI dashboards that drive consistency and efficiency.

• Deliver high-touch guest experiences while leveraging technology, systems, and structured processes.

• Lead labor strategy and productivity optimization while maintaining service excellence.

• Ensure compliance with safety, health, labor, brand, and regulatory standards.

 

6. Sales, Revenue & Market Leadership

• Partner closely with Sales, Revenue Management, and Marketing leaders to define and execute go-to-market strategy.

• Personally support key account relationships, major group negotiations, and strategic partnerships.

• Ensure tight alignment between sales commitments and operational execution.

• Champion experiential storytelling, reputation management, and digital presence.

• Align hotel strategy with destination marketing, tourism, and enterprise-wide initiatives.

 

7. Community, Brand & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as a visible and trusted representative of the property with ownership, brand partners, civic leaders, and community organizations.

• Actively participate in tourism, economic development, and philanthropic efforts.

• Represent the hotel in media, industry forums, and professional associations as appropriate.

 

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Management, Business, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered.

• 10-15+ years of progressive hospitality leadership experience in upscale or luxury full-service hotels preferred.

• Prior General Manager, Assistant General Manager, or Hotel Manager experience in a Four Diamond or equivalent environment strongly preferred.

• Proven success managing complex operations with multiple outlets and significant meeting/event space.

• Demonstrated P&L ownership with strong commercial and financial acumen.

• Strong knowledge of Hotel Operations, Food & Beverage, and Sales.

• Experience working directly with ownership groups and/or asset managers.